Fact of the day

Information is the most powerful weapon.

Monday

Fact N°
1303

The order of succession to the British throne is a list almost 5,000 people long.

In England, succession to the throne is a matter of familial descent, but also of law; the Act of Settlement of 1701 conferred onto Parliament the duties of determining who gets the title to the throne.
The current royals' website lists the 40 people in line behind Queen Elizabeth II, but in fact, the list is tediously long, running to almost 5,000 names as of 2001.

Tuesday

Fact N°
1304

About every 12 minutes, someone is injured by a toilet.

That's according to the book Number Freaking, by Gary Rimmer, who neglects to cite his source but puts the figure at 45,000 Americans injured this way annually.
While it's often a subject laughed about, there are many ways to hurt yourself around a toilet, from slipping on a wet bathroom floor to a variety of bruises or broken bones from sitting down when the seat is up. And, urban legends aside, it's not uncommon to die on the toilet, perhaps from the exertion, which may strain an already frail body, or simply because it's a place we visit several times a day.

Wednesday

Fact N°
1305

A devious Chicago bartender is likely the origin and namesake of "slipping a Mickey."

Although there isn't complete agreement, most sources tie the term "to slip a Mickey," meaning to put something into someone's drink, presumably to knock them out, to a Chicago bartender at the turn of the century named Mickey Finn.
According to contemporary accounts, Finn had a fondness for putting was what presumably chloral hydrate into the drinks he served so that his patrons would pass out -- and he could rob them.

Thursday

Fact N°
1306

Augustus the Strong fathered as many as 350 children.

Augustus, the powerful 18th century Elector of Saxony and King of Poland in the Habsburg empire, was a great patron of art and architecture who had an enormous appetite for just about everything, including the newly created European porcelain (from which he commissioned an entire zoo of porcelain animals) and sex.
Although Augustus himself only recognized eight of his illegitimate children, historians have made estimates on the total number of his offspring which run as high as 382.

Friday

Fact N°
1307

Insect repellents use an odor to make it hard for insects to find you.

One of the most common active ingredients found in insect repellents is oil of citronella, which has a distinctive odor that masks the CO2 and lactic acid that insects can smell in order to find humans. It is used in liquid products like bug spray as well as in the likes of candles you light to keep bugs away. In other words, these repellents don't really repel at all, they conceal.

Saturday

Fact N°
1308

No one has ever swallowed his tongue.

Often misapplied to people in the midst of seizures, physiologically the term "swallow your tongue" is a misnomer: because of the way it is anchored in the mouth, it is physically impossible to actually swallow your own tongue.
Rather, the term likely applies to the danger of choking to death if the tongue is allowed to block the airways.

Sunday

Fact N°
1309

Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. Interstate System was not designed to accommodate emergency airplane landings.

Of the many popular myths surrounding the U.S. interstate highway system, one particularly widespread one claims that "One in five miles of the interstate system is straight so airplanes can land in emergencies."
But the U.S. Department of Transportation's web site adamantly disputes this, saying it "has no basis in law, regulation, design manual -- or fact. Airplanes occasionally land on Interstates when no alternative is available in an emergency, not because the Interstates are designed for that purpose."